A CNN special investigation looks into the causes and effects of the Fort Hood shootings, Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on CNN TV.

Thirteen flag-draped coffins left Fort Hood on Friday as authorities searched for a motive in the massacre that left more than 50 casualties at the largest U.S. military base.

Thursday’s mass shooting killed 12 soldiers and one civilian and wounded 38 people at the Fort Hood Army Post in Texas. The suspect in the shooting, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a licensed Army psychiatrist, was among the two dozen who remained hospitalized Friday night.

Hasan was transported to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, and was in critical condition but stable, a spokesman said. Investigators were waiting to speak to the comatose Hasan, who is under heavy guard, said Col. John Rossi, the post’s deputy commander.

The bodies of the 13 personnel who died were transported through a “ramp ceremony” to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for a dignified transfer, he said. It was a “truly moving ceremony.”

FBI agents helping investigate the shootings searched Hasan’s apartment on Friday while investigators sifted through the crime scene, Fort Hood’s military processing center, where soldiers report before they go to war.

The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) addressed his companions on the last day of Sha`ban, saying, “Oh people! A great month has come over you; a blessed month; a month in which is a night better than a thousand months; month in which Allah has made it compulsory upon you to fast by day, and voluntary to pray by night. Whoever draws nearer (to Allah) by performing any of the (optional) good deeds in (this month) shall receive the same reward as performing an obligatory deed at any other time, and whoever discharges an obligatory deed in (this month) shall receive the reward of performing seventy obligations at any other time. It is the month of patience, and the reward of patience is Heaven. It is the month of charity, and a month in which a believer’s sustenance is increased. Whoever gives food to a fasting person to break his fast, shall have his sins forgiven, and he will be saved from the Fire of Hell, and he shall have the same reward as the fasting person, without his reward being diminished at all.” [Narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah]

In relation to fasting, this book contains the most pertinent Qur’anic verses, authentic ahadeeth, delightful poetry and touching advice. It is therefore, a book for the righteous when they meet for pleasant conversations. It is also a gift for wayfarers when they break their journeys for rest, a treasure for those who share mutual love and respect – For Ramadhan is indeed the noblest month and its days are the sweetest days…

Finding a halal restaurant just became significantly easier for American Muslims, thanks to a new smart phone application launched this month that makes dietary religious observance a piece of cake.

Ask dietary-cautious Muslims in the west what their major challenge is when it comes to eating religiously-permitted foods and they’ll say finding a halal place on-the-go. But with Halalpal, an iPhone application that locates halal restaurants and eateries throughout the United States, sticking to a halal diet has become much easier.

The search engine application designed for Apple’s iPhone gives users a list of nearby restaurants with maps, contact information, price categories and recommendations.

The application scans the internet — mainly Google, Yahoo, Yelp and the online guide to halal restaurants and products known as Zabihah.com — to produce a list of halal eateries sorted by distance.

Rami Dodin, Halalpal’s 26-year-old founder, said his application fills the gap between technology and religion in daily life. After years of working in the IT business, Dodin realized there was a void between the services offered by the latest technologies and gadgets on the one hand and the everyday local needs of Muslim Americans on the other.

“There is an ‘access gap’ between local halal businesses and their goers that Halalpal fills,” Dodin, who is based in San Francisco, told Al Arabiya. “Many Muslims have iPhones and blackberry interfaces that are useful on the whole but do not have services that cater specifically to their religious local needs.”

“Halal eating is a very niche thing and it is hard to get specific search results off of Google and Yahoo because they do not target that specific customer group,” he explained.

The reference literature for Islam has long consisted of either a densely academic, multivolume encyclopedia or several, often specialized, single-volume works with brief definitions. Happily, there is now a reference work falling between these two extremes. The Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World is a scholarly work “about Islamic cultures, religion, history, politics, and the like as well as the people who have identified with Islam over the past fourteen centuries.”

A team of international scholars is responsible for the 515 entries, which are arranged alphabetically and range from 200 to 5,000 words in length. Many include some sort of illustration and end with helpful see also references and excellent supplemental bibliographies. A useful index completes the set. Coverage includes the religious dimensions of Islam as well as the development of the tradition in various parts of the world (e.g., Africa, South Asia, U.S.). Cultural issues of importance to the history of Islam (e.g., architecture, calligraphy, language) are also treated. Entries such as Political organization and Political thought demonstrate the historical completeness for which the encyclopedia strives, tracing developments from the life of the Prophet to the present day. Even topics of contemporary interest include a historical perspective. The entry for Jihad describes the many meanings of the term, including its contemporary association with violence, and how the concept has developed historically. The treatment of secularization in the Muslim world includes a comparison to historical events in the West, thereby helping the reader to understand that it cannot be understood solely from a Western perspective. Finally, the biographical entries include important figures from the religious, cultural, and political history of the Muslim world.